


Stay with me, where even darkness can't touch us

by Nexys



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Ben Solo Needs A Hug, Dreams and Nightmares, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Force Dyad (Star Wars), Hurt/Comfort, Kylo Ren Needs a Hug, Protective Rey (Star Wars)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:33:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23733139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nexys/pseuds/Nexys
Summary: When the night comes, in the open space, Kylo Ren ceases to be a maximum exponent of the First Order. All his weaknesses emerge in the form of memories and nightmares, forcing him to return to being only Ben, with all his crosses and his internal disagreements. The mask is unable to keep his pain away, but only to hide it, from everyone except himself and her. The one who, on the coldest and most difficult nights, manifests herself as an evanescent dream to soothe his emotional wounds. In the darkness and frost of a cold enemy spaceship, war ceases to exist for a few hours. All that's left are Rey and Ben.-------From the text: "His heart ripped bleed poison away from the eyes of anyone who had even heard his name as Knight of Ren, ally of the First Order in the distance. Counted as a murderer and monster, he had no right to be human, no longer... "
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 1
Kudos: 20





	Stay with me, where even darkness can't touch us

A pair of familiar dark eyes was staring at him. He could clearly see the fear painted in his gaze, within which his reflection stood out. The face of a young boy divided between light and dark took shape in the midst of fear, in a mixture of violent and tiring feelings. Luke's face was contracted in a grimace of horror, illuminated by the celestial light of his lightsaber, brandished by surprisingly trembling hands.

Ben could sense his fear, his terror, his unequivocal desire to kill him. According to the arrogant voice of those vivid feelings, that frightened boy deserved death for allowing doubt to instill itself in his mind. Affected by the desire for knowledge of the Dark Side of the Force, Ben Solo saw a fierce condemnation in his Master's eyes. Even before the anger and the desire for destruction due to feeling threatened, rejected and hated, Ben felt a strong sense of loss, mixed with an unspeakable pain.

With the betrayal suffered in the heart, Kylo Ren awoke from yet another vivid nightmare that had haunted his stormy night. Sweating, he sat on the bed with his hands to pick up his face. He shook his head, in an attempt to escape the memory of Luke's eyes filled with fear and lust for death, _his death_. He had no room at that time to bring anger back to the surface and cling to it in a final attempt to resist his own buried humanity. Kylo Ren had put down his mask and weapons to allow Ben Solo to be overwhelmed by the violence of his emotions and memories. Imprisoned by his still unfinished destiny, suffocated by a difficult night, he felt as human and fragile as the inexperienced boy he had once been, when Luke's betrayal had mortally wounded him without leaving visible scars. His pierced heart bled poison away from the eyes of anyone who had even heard his name as Knight of Ren, ally of the First Order, in the distance. Counted as a cruel assassin and unnameable monster, he had no right to be human, no more, thus ending up being forced to reveal himself in full solitude, without anyone collecting the fragments of his devastated soul.  
Or at least so he believed.

" _Ben_." A gentle, familiar voice called him.

He still could not understand what was based on that unknown bond that had come to be established in the Force. But despite his doubts, shared with the one who had just set foot in his quarters defying space, time and war, that connection was intensifying from instant to instant, to the point of transcending without blow hurting their mutual reality.

The boy looked up until he saw the figure of the young Jedi standing out at the foot of his bed.

"Ben..." she whispered again, her expression cracked by an ancient pain. She had awakened in the middle of the night feeling the violence of his nightmares, all his indescribable pain, deaf and deep, rooted in his now poisoned heart. Taking advantage of the Force, she had decided to take the risk and to slip into his mind, in his falsely corrupt soul, to take shape inside his room, to actually realize his conditions. She saw a man devoured by the flames, the contrite and human expression of someone who does not have the strength to suppress all that pain, not that night.

"What are you doing here?" Replied the man, his tone raised by the disturbance. It was not an accusation or an attempt to drive her out of her mind. On the contrary, he was intimately happy that he was not alone in facing the weight of his own nightmares, of that look full of terror and death in which he had seen himself reflected as a young Jedi on the road to perdition.

Rey gave him an almost embarrassed smile. " _I felt your pain..._ ".

Kylo Ren would deny his suffering to death. Ben, on the contrary, returned her expression with a barely hinted grimace. "Nothing you don't already know." He said, referring to the first time she had probed his mind, at the time of that first interrogation in which he understood how powerful she was in the Force. And how weak he himself was in the Force when it came to her.

Without waiting any longer, the young Jedi approached his bed, sitting next to him. It was as if suddenly everything else around them had ceased to exist. It mattered little that they were closed in the apartments of one of the most dangerous exponents of the First Order, on a threatening spaceship ready to exterminate the Resistance.

" _I saw Luke's face, and your face reflected in his eyes._ ", she admitted, torturing his hands in an attempt not to look at him. " _I felt his fear, yours, and your pain. Your heart broke_."

Ben gritted his teeth, running a hand over his face. "Stop it..." he murmured, unable to push her away as she was about to take charge of his feelings. She was sweetly unstoppable. Overcome by his so human weakness, Rey approached him putting a hand on his cheek and invite him to meet his gaze with hers. The warm touch of Rey's hand seemed to break the ice that had risen in his room, bringing him back for a moment to when the pain was only a simple echo. Incredible how her presence managed to ease the suffering that he had become accustomed to repressing only by wearing Ren's mask. Attracted by the gentle touch of her hand, he mirrored himself in her eyes, capturing his own image in the fullness of his disconcerting humanity. Contrary to what he remembered and feared to have to see again, in Rey's eyes he did not read fear or hesitation, but only an immeasurable hope.  
Redemption. Peace. _Affection_.

The weight on his heart seemed to lighten just enough to allow him to breathe deeply. Rey's scent was everywhere around him, as was her positive and warm influence. The war had ceased to exist for a single instant, in which all that mattered was their lonely souls in search of mutual comfort. The man raised his hand to place it on hers and held it so pressed against his cheek for a few seconds, before turning his face slightly and placing a pop-free kiss on her open palm. Rey smiled shyly, while a slight pinkish tint dyed her freckles.

They remained motionless to probe each other for endless moments, until the moment when Rey took her courage with two hands and approached his enemy to place a kiss on his forehead, signing a silent and temporary armistice. Ren's questioning expression did not have the material time to subsist, as the young woman pulled herself up on the mattress to comfortably take a seat at his side, with the silent pretense of watching over his restless sleep.

" _I stay here for one night._ ", she kept on pointing out, showing off a very unconvincing determination. After a few seconds of brooding silence, the man lay down beside her, resting his head on her lap, completely disarmed and voluntarily helpless and at her mercy. If she wanted, she could have killed him without any effort. The thought, however, did not frighten him at all, and indeed tickled in him the idea that abandoning earthly life by her hand, in that precious situation, would have been a good way to die.

The girl's hands reached his raven hair, starting to trace soft and slow caresses in an attempt to help him relax. There was no need to speak, so Ben slowly closed his eyes, abandoning himself to the kindness of her touch, emitting a liberating sigh. Rey began to murmur a soft melody in a low voice, which seemed melodious and comforting to the man's ears. He read in her soul the vivid memory of a lullaby sung by what must have been her mother, but without a clear face to share. Lost in the intensity of her voice and in the sweetness of that song, he brought to mind the ethereal figure of his mother Leia, intent on accompanying him in the world of dreams throughout his childhood, with his maternal sweetness. Feeling Ben melt between her fingers, she let his voice drop to silence when she felt his breathing slow and cadenced, his spirit freed for a night and turned to the world of dreams that had been barred for so long.

She smiled, covering the man with the sheets, before dissolving into a gentle whisper.

" _I'm not afraid of you ... You will never be alone, Ben._ "

His expression was surprisingly serene.

" _I promise you._ "


End file.
